Battle on!

Reading the book The World Hitler Never Made (which I’ll go into detail on in the next Books I’ve Read post), I was struck by how many The Nazis Won alternate histories use some small victory at the end to offer hope. In Len Deighton’s SS-GB, for example, England has been occupied and a large part of the country is collaborating, but at the end a successful resistance operation scores a small coup. Not one that guarantees victory, but that definitely holds hope.
This works for me, but I’ve noticed it rarely works the other way around. Have the slasher in a horror movie escape, or the leader of the mad Satanic cult, and I feel dissatisfied, not to mention gritting my teeth at the thought of a sequel.
In comics, I have the same problem with “untouchable” villains such as the Kingpin (during Frank Miller’s run on Daredevil) or the post-Crisis Luthor: When the hero thwarts their scheme and they walk away smiling (or scowling) I feel I’ve been denied any satisfactory payoff (Dr. Doom doesn’t count since even if he can’t be touched legally, he usually gets his butt kicked in the field).
Yet I find myself perfectly satisfied with stories such as Deighton’s, even though the villains end up in a much stronger position: The Nazis still run Europe.
I think it’s because there is an unmistakable victory: It may not turn the tide, but the resistance victory in SS-GB is a definite win, not the frustrated triumph of DD against the Kingpin or seeing Michael Myers escape for yet another killing spree. It doesn’t cheat, it satisfies.
I have a feeling there may be more to it, but it’s the best I can come up with for now.